


suits me (suits you, too)

by notcaycepollard



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, MCU Civil War, Pining, but how does Coulson pay for all those suits anyway, how many does he even own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-23 00:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4857182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcaycepollard/pseuds/notcaycepollard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ten suits Coulson and Skye have and haven't worn</p>
            </blockquote>





	suits me (suits you, too)

1.

Later, Coulson would like to say he picked out his suit that day specially. He didn't, though. It's a nice suit (all his suits are nice suits) but he just grabbed the first one he saw hanging in his closet that morning. Charcoal pinstripe, a subtle blue striped tie, white shirt, it's his standard G-Man look, although he has to admit, he thinks he looks good.

He doesn't wear it to  _impress_ Skye, is the point, or at least, not to impress her beyond "hello, look at how I am a flawless Agent Agent, I hope you find this intimidating". He doesn't know how successful he is; Skye doesn't seem like the kind of person who intimidates easily. She stares them down in the interrogation room, snarks back at him, and he has to admit: he likes it.

The lighter gray suit he wears a couple of days later, though,  _that's_  to impress her. Tailored suit, a classic car that  _flies_ , his aviator sunglasses... it's a smooth look. Yeah, okay, he wants to impress her. A bit. She tucks her hands into the pockets of that short red dress, saunters alongside him, and Coulson's glad of his suit, because it feels like armor.

 

2.

Coulson's not really sure what Skye thinks of the suits. She always dresses down, in a way that feels deliberate, like a challenge to the system she's working with now. He can't imagine her in the crisply stern uniform of a SHIELD agent. Even once she joins (and he knows she will, because Skye feels like a person who always gets what she wants) he doubts she'll move to a suit-and-tie aesthetic. Most agents don't, to be fair. This is Coulson's thing.

Still.  _Still_. After their conflict at the Hub, her righteous anger at levels and classified information and the entire buttoned-up structure that is SHIELD at its most bureaucratic core, he worries. Even after she gives him a tear-stained smile, even after she throws her arms around him, he worries.  _He's_ SHIELD at its most bureaucratic. He has been for thirty years, ever since he put on that first suit, knotted a tie. He wears those suits as a badge, a visual representation of an organization he's usually proud to be a part of. Maybe Skye hates that.

"Turns out, guys in suits, they're not so bad," Skye tells Mike, makes eye contact, and god, her words fill him with more warmth than maybe they should. Turns out, hacker girls in soft sweaters that fall off one shoulder, hacker girls who challenge everything about the structure he's part of, they're not so bad, either.

 

3.

Coulson's pretty deep under when Skye pulls him out of the memory machine. He doesn't see her come in, doesn't see her face full of fury, doesn't see her punch Raina (but May tells him later, and god, he  _wishes_ he'd seen that, because Skye as avenging angel, well). Later, though, when he's showered, put on a clean suit, he sees her and it feels like it's through fresh eyes. He thanks her, takes off the security bracelet, and he can take her in anew.

Skye's suited up, herself, in her own way. She stands differently in that jacket, with its crisp, strong shoulders, straight lines, cinched waist. He can tell that she's channeling May, and that's kind of wonderful, but Skye looks like nobody but herself. She looks  _powerful_. 

He wants to see that more. He wants to see Skye become a force to be reckoned with. He thinks she already is.

" _Skye_ ," he remembers saying. "Skye, Skye, Skye," like he's breathing it, like her name is his heartbeat.

"I appreciate your concern," he tells her now, carefully bland, because god, what else can he say. "Thanks for bringing me back from death," maybe.

 

4.

He doesn't have favorite suits, but Coulson does really like this suit. Which is a pity, because he's pretty sure he's going to burn it. It's got Skye's blood on it. His cuffs are stained red, and he can see the dark patches on the gray wool across his chest, and  _it's got Skye's blood on it_ , because Skye is lying in a med-pod dying, and Coulson is going to set everything ablaze, his suit, his shirt, his tie, Fury's secret files. He'd carve out Ian Quinn's heart if it meant Skye would live.

Then he goes down into the Guest House, finds the serum that brought him back, finds the  _source_ , and oh god, it turns out he has two suits he needs to burn, now, because this one feels soaked through with alien blood and guilt and his own thoughts screaming at him that he was selfish, that he was wrong, that he was  _desperate_ , through all the hours he sits at her side, waiting for her to wake up.

"At least we're in the dark together," Skye says, and it's not enough, it's not enough, but it's something.

 

5.

Skye's combat gear, it's not like Coulson's suit, but it's so definitely a  _suit_ , and she's blazingly gorgeous in it. He tries not to look at the way the collar frames her face, her determined jaw. She's cut bangs into her hair, wears jeans and boots and tight black t-shirts when she's not combat-ready, and god, Coulson could look at her for hours.

He's trying not to. He hasn't spent any time with her for months. He's the Director now, and he's got a secret he's trying to keep, a secret she'll just pull right out of him if he looks at her for too long. But when she pulls on that tac gear, the hood and straps and gloves, slings a sniper rifle over one shoulder, he thinks, this is better than any suit and tie, and he looks, just enough.

 

6.

Coulson wears suits daily, but it's not often he gets a chance to look  _fancy_. This mission might be undercover, but it's also an opportunity to wear cufflinks. So sue him, he likes cufflinks.

He unbuttons his shirt just a little deeper than is really appropriate, flashes a little skin, and when Skye's eyes linger on the bare skin of his throat and collarbones and (yeah, just a little bit of) his chest, if Coulson weren't such a stone cold agent, he'd blush. He suddenly regrets keeping her at arm's distance.

(He doesn't speak to her, doesn't give her the opportunity, pushes her away harder. It's for her own good. He's trying to  _protect_ her.)

(She figures it out anyway, pushes right back, and yeah, sometimes he thinks about the way she looked at him in that suit. Even when he's carving, he thinks about it.) 

 

7.

"Halloween soon," Bobbi says. "We could trick or treat?"

"I... okay," Coulson agrees, because apparently the team needs something relaxing to take their mind off  _basically everything_ that's happened in the last few months. Skye looks pensive.

"We never did Halloween at St Agnes," she admits. "I bet y'all have super great kid photos of your costumes, right?"

Coulson's not going to admit to it, in front of the team, but he does have some super great kid photos. His Captain America obsession goes way back, okay.  _Way_ back. And because Skye looks so much like she needs something she can laugh at, and for no other reason at all, he leaves a photo of himself, age eight, on her desk along with a bag of Reeses cups. He's in the blue suit and helmet, with a painted trashcan shield, and Coulson's so glad he and Skye share an office now, and that he's in the room when she finds the photo, because she goes quiet and misty and then laughs harder than he's heard in weeks.

She doesn't tease him about it, and it's not enough to fix everything or anything, but she offers him a peanut butter cup, and gives him a soft look, and for all that remembering his own childhood is bittersweet, it feels good to share.

 

8.

The first time Coulson shows up on the clock in jeans, Skye literally stares at him in confusion, blinks, looks again in what he thinks is the best double-take he's seen in years. She bites her lip, lowers her eyes, but all through the briefing, he can feel her gaze on him, intent and curious. It's making him feel flushed, wishing he had a tie to loosen. His shirt collar is already unbuttoned, for god's sake.

The next day he's in jeans again, and a t-shirt, not even a button-down, and Skye's looking  _even more_ , letting her eyes linger on his bare forearms, his shoulders, the shape of his chest. He doesn't even think she knows she's doing it. Coulson feels stripped down, defenseless, and he wants to go back to his suits, but he made this decision for a reason.

He thinks she'll get used to it - she's seen him in a t-shirt before - but it's only a week later that she looks up from her paperwork, says refreshingly direct, "So, what's with the no suits?"

"Miss them?" he parries, gives her a smirk, and she grins.

"Yeah, I do, but  _you_ do, sir, so what's up?" Coulson sighs.

"I'm not on a government salary anymore," he admits. "I- we're not even drawing any pay, right? All my money is going into keeping SHIELD running. And my suits have a habit of getting destroyed in the line of duty. I'm running low. Figured I should start saving them for special occasions."  _I'm getting used to having my arm visible_ , he doesn't say.

"Well," Skye says, giving him another once-over. "I miss the suits, but this is a good look. Sir." Yeah, Coulson thinks. It is.

 

9.

When Coulson sees Skye in her Quake suit for the first time, he basically can't breathe with how hot it is. The  _jacket_ , god, and the gauntlets and boots and Skye's face and her short hair. She saunters into his office (their office), raises an eyebrow.

"You like it?" she asks, and Coulson thinks he's due a little staring, after all of it that Skye did. So he stares. Big deal.

"Yeah," he manages eventually. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Skye says, tugs the zip down a little, and Coulson chokes.

"Did you put on your new superhero suit just to seduce me, Agent?" he teases her, and she just smiles.

"Yeah," she agrees. "I did."

The next time Coulson sees Skye in her Quake suit, and she's about to go into the field, he blushes, can't help it, and she gives him a wicked smirk, which  _really doesn't help_  but is absolutely hot as hell. He loves this suit.  _Loves_ this suit.

 

10.

Skye knocks on his bunk door, and when he opens, she's almost unrecognizable. 

"Wow," he gets out. "That's..."

"I make a pretty good Agent Agent," Skye says, tilts her head. Her hair swings sleek and straight in a professional-looking bob; she shifts in her heels, smooths her hands down over her skirt. "Right? All crisp and competent?"

"You do," he agrees. "I miss  _Skye_ , though. That's a better look. Where'd you even..."

"Borrowed the suit and heels from Weaver," Skye says. "Jemma did my hair. What do you think? Appropriate for a Senate hearing?"

"Yes," Coulson says, "they'll stand to attention." He brushes a hand down her arm, trying to be reassuring. Skye tugs at her skirt again, self-conscious.

"I wish you could come with me," she admits. "I'm terrified." Coulson pulls her in, presses a kiss to her temple.

"Me too," he breathes, "me too, but they have a habit of kind of arresting me on sight, so..."

"Hmmm," Skye hums, leans into him for a moment, glances over at his open closet door. "Hey, Coulson, pick me a tie?"

"Ties aren't really..." he says, capitulates as soon as he sees her face. "Sure. Okay." Her skirt suit is charcoal pinstripe, with a plain white shirt, so Coulson chooses a subtle blue striped tie, wraps it underneath her collar, slides the knot up to her throat. Leaves his hand there for a long moment. "You'll be fine," he tells her, "you'll be great, and Captain America's got your back, Agent Johnson."

"Okay," Skye says. "Okay. I'll be home soon, okay?" She pulls away, touches her fingers to her tie. Buttons her jacket, the way he's done so many times, pulls herself together. Her suit's like armor. He hopes it's enough.


End file.
